Amerisur shares down after quick-fire placing

The AIM-traded oil and gas producer said a total of 106 million new ordinary shares of 0.1p each had been placed by Stifel, Investec and RBC at a price of 25p per placing share, raising net proceeds of around $35m (£24.6m).

Simultaneously to the placing, the joint bookrunners placed around 9.4 million existing Amerisur shares to institutional investors on behalf of Petrodorado Energy.

The placing shares represented around 9.6% of the company's existing ordinary share capital, and were to be credited as fully paid and rank pari passu once issued. Admission was expected to take place on 11 March at 0800 GMT.

"I would like to thank existing and new shareholders for their support. We have the firepower to accelerate activity across our portfolio such that we can leverage the OBA pipeline, which will be operational shortly, and which reduces OPEX per barrel significantly," said Amerisur CEO John Wardle.

"We now have an active drilling programme at significantly lower costs due to the oil price climate and plan to increase reserves and production whilst maintaining our capital discipline," he added.

The company's board confirmed that Stifel, Investec and RBC were acting as joing bookrunners in respect of the placing. Its enlarged issued share capital was now 1,206,452,484.

Amerisur shares were facing choppy trading through the day, and at 1509 GMT were down 13.6% at 27p.